Gbaya people

Last updated
Gbaya
Gbaya people distribution map.png
Gbaya people distribution map (approx). [1] [2]
Total population
1.2 million [3]
Languages
Gbaya
Religion
Christianity

The Gbaya, also Gbeya or Baya, are a people of western region of Central African Republic, east-central Cameroon, the north of the Republic of Congo, and the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Republic of South Sudan [4] In the first half of the 20th century, the Gbaya were involved in several revolt attempts against German and then French colonial rule.

Contents

In rural areas, the Gbaya cultivate mainly maize, cassava, yams, peanuts, tobacco, coffee and rice, the latter two of which were introduced by the French. Today, many of the Gbaya people are Christians, though witchcraft is practiced, known as dua.

History

Gbaya village circa 1900. Gbaya tribesmen of the Ubangi-Shari region circa 1900.jpg
Gbaya village circa 1900.

Gbaya people have been present in Central Africa since at least the 16th century. [5] Archaeological researches have determined their place of origin to be located somewhere in the lower valley of the Lobaye River. [6] During the early 19th century, several Gbaya tribes migrated toward the Eastern area of whats is now Cameroon. [6]

During the 19th century, a series of wars opposed Gbaya tribes to Fulani tribes of the Sokoto Caliphate. [7] These wars were marked by extensive slave raiding, resulting in the enslavement of a great numbers of Gbaya by the Fulani. [8]

The first contact with Europeans occurred in 1892, when French explorer Antoine Mizon entered Gbaya territory after steaming up the Sangha River. [9]

In the early 1900s, the area where the Gbaya lived became part of German Kamerun. [10] The Gbaya, who traditionally lived in small rural communities, strongly resented the forced urbanization brought by the Germans. Many tribes initially responded by moving away to remote areas, but a German repression campaign soon forced them back into submission. [11] By 1910, all the resisting tribes had been subdued, and their leaders had been hanged. [12] From 1912 onward, many Gbaya tribes were forced to collect rubber for the Germans. [13]

When the First World War broke out, France, Britain and Belgium invaded German Kamerun. Many Gbaya joined the French to get revenge from the oppression they had suffered at the hands of the Germans. [14] As they retreated, German forces used scorched earth tactics, burning down many Gbaya villages [15] The Gbaya also suffered greatly when a number of Congolese Force Publique troops went rogue and indulged in a series of rapes and murders on the locals. [15] To escape the horrors of the war, many Gbaya tribes went to live deep into the rainforest, and soon the old practices that the German administration had attempted to quell, such as tribal wars, slavery and cannibalism, became popular again. [15]

In 1928, forced labor conscription by the French to build the Congo-Ocean Railway, [1] and the rise of Karnu, a Gbaya prophet who claimed to possess magical powers that could defeat the French, caused the Gbaya to revolt massively. Karnu was killed early, but revolt kept raging for about three years until the French were finally able to put it down.

The Gbaya people felt discriminated against in the political sphere, even after independence from the French.[ citation needed ] It was only in the 1990s that a notable number of Gbaya leaders began to be admitted into higher administrative positions in government. [16] More recent estimates of the population differ markedly, from 1.2 million, [3] down to 685,100, of which 358,000 are native to Cameroon.[ citation needed ]

Gbaya culture often takes an interest in the past and various traditions of martial arts, including disciplines that use hand-to-hand weapons.

A Gbaya man in 1903 Baya man.jpg
A Gbaya man in 1903

Subgroups and languages

Subgroups of the Gbaya include the Bokoto, Kara, Kaka, Buli, and Bwaka. The Gbaya speak a language of the Adamawa-Ubangi subgroup of the Niger-Congo language family. [1]

Cannibalism

Pre-colonial and early colonial era Gbaya tribes routinely indulged in ritual anthropophagy. [17] [18] [19] While it essentially targeted defeated enemies, it could in some occasions be extended to owned slaves. [20] This behavior deeply disgusted the Germans and the French, causing them to disdain and mistreat the Gbaya people, and to favor other ethnicities (such as the Fulani) over the Gbaya. [15]

By the end of the 20th century, anthropophagy is considered to have completely disappeared from Gbaya culture. One of the last recorded cases occurred in 1949, when a dozen old Gbaya men from a village near Bertoua were arrested after having indulged in ritual cannibalism. [21]

Economic and cultural practices

Gbaya throwing knife. Gbaya Throwing Knife 2.jpg
Gbaya throwing knife.

In rural areas, the Gbaya cultivate mainly maize, cassava (staple food), [22] yams, peanuts, tobacco, coffee and rice, the latter two of which were introduced by the French. The diamond industry took off in the late 1930s and still remains important. [1] The agriculture method of Gbaya is called "swidden", a type of "slash and burn" farming where the forest is cleared, vegetation burnt on top of the cleared land, the farm used for a few years, then abandoned and the families move to a new area. [22]

The Gbaya make an alcoholic beverage prepared with honey which is known as kuri. Kam, is a Gbaya porridge made from cassava. [16] Today, most of the Gbaya people are Christians (50% Protestant, 33% Catholic), about 12% follows original indigenous beliefs, with only a minority of Muslims (3%). [22] [23] Witchcraft is known to be practiced, and is known to the people as dua. [24]

Stories and rituals of the Gbaya people are a feature of everyday society. [25] The rituals employ martial arts equipment such as dual-edged swords and throwing knives. [26]

Famous People

See also

Related Research Articles

At the crossroads of West Africa and Central Africa, the territory of what is now Cameroon has seen human habitation since some time in the Middle Paleolithic, likely no later than 130,000 years ago. The earliest discovered archaeological evidence of humans dates from around 30,000 years ago at Shum Laka. The Bamenda highlands in western Cameroon near the border with Nigeria are the most likely origin for the Bantu peoples, whose language and culture came to dominate most of central and southern Africa between 1000 BCE and 1000 CE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French Equatorial Africa</span> Federation of French colonies in central Africa (1910–58)

French Equatorial Africa was a federation of French colonial territories in Equatorial Africa which consisted of Gabon, French Congo, Ubangi-Shari, and Chad. It existed from 1910 to 1958 and its administration was based in Brazzaville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fula people</span> Ethnic group in Sahel and West Africa

The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people are an ethnic group in Sahara, Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. Inhabiting many countries, they live mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, South Sudan, Darfur, and regions near the Red Sea coast in Sudan. The approximate number of Fula people is unknown, due to clashing definitions regarding Fula ethnicity. Various estimates put the figure between 25 and 40 million people worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamerun</span> West African colony of the German Empire from 1884 to 1916

Kamerun was an African colony of the German Empire from 1884 to 1920 in the region of today's Republic of Cameroon. Kamerun also included northern parts of Gabon and the Congo with western parts of the Central African Republic, southwestern parts of Chad and far northeastern parts of Nigeria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Africa</span> Core region of African continent

Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Middle Africa is an analogous term used by the United Nations in its geoscheme for Africa and consists of the following countries: Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe. The United Nations Office for Central Africa also includes Burundi and Rwanda in the region, which are considered part of East Africa in the geoscheme. These eleven countries are members of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Six of those countries are also members of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) and share a common currency, the Central African CFA franc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Region (Cameroon)</span> Region of Cameroon

The East Region occupies the southeastern portion of the Republic of Cameroon. It is bordered to the east by the Central African Republic, to the south by Congo, to the north by the Adamawa Region, and to the west by the Centre and South Regions. With 109,002 km2 of territory, it is the largest region in the nation as well as the most sparsely populated. Historically, the peoples of the East have been settled in Cameroonian territory for longer than any other of the country's many ethnic groups, the first inhabitants being the Baka pygmies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ngaoundéré</span> Place in Adamawa, Cameroon

Ngaoundéré or N'Gaoundéré is the capital of the Adamawa Region of Cameroon. It had a population of 152,700 at the 2005 census. According to the film Les Mairuuwas – Maitre de l'eau produced by the University of Tromsø, the population has rapidly risen to 1,000,000 owing to mass immigration from the Central African Republic and the perceived danger from Boko Haram in northern Cameroon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirdi</span> Ethnic groups of the northern Nigeria–Cameroon border

The Kirdi are the many cultures and ethnic groups who inhabit northwestern Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banda people</span> Ethnic group native to Africa

The Banda people are an ethnic group of the Central African Republic. They are likewise found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, and South Sudan. They were severely affected by slave raids of the 19th century and slave trading out of Africa. Under French colonial rule, most converted to Christianity but retained elements of their traditional religious systems and values.

Carnot is a city located in the south west of the Central African Republic (CAR), in the prefecture of Mambéré.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bassa people (Cameroon)</span> Ethnic group of Cameroon

The Bassa are a Bantu ethnic group in Cameroon. They number approximately 800,000 individuals. The Bassa speak the Basaa language.

The Gbaya languages, also known as Gbaya–Manza–Ngbaka, are a family of perhaps a dozen languages spoken mainly in the western Central African Republic and across the border in Cameroon, with one language (Ngbaka) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and several languages with few speakers in the Republic of the Congo. Many of the languages go by the ethnic name Gbaya, though the largest, with over a million speakers, is called Ngbaka, a name shared with the Ngbaka languages of the Ubangian family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neukamerun</span> German colonial territory ceded by France in 1911

Neukamerun was the name of Central African territories ceded by the Third French Republic to the German Empire in 1911. Upon taking office in 1907, Theodor Seitz, governor of Kamerun, advocated the acquisition of territories from the French Congo.

Kako is a Bantu language spoken mainly in Cameroon, with some speakers in the Central African Republic and the Republic of the Congo. The main population centres of Kako speakers are Batouri and Ndélélé in the East Region of Cameroon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Batouri</span> Place in East, Cameroon

Batouri is a town and commune in the East Province of Cameroon. It is the second largest municipality in the province after the provincial capital Bertoua. It is located on the main road connecting Bertoua to the Central African Republic and to the Cameroonian town of Yokadouma. It had an estimated 33,500 inhabitants as of 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postage stamps and postal history of Cameroon</span>

Postage stamps have been used in Cameroon or Cameroun since the nineteenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adamawa Wars</span>

The Adamawa Wars (1899–1907) were initially a series of military expeditions and border conflicts between the German Schutztruppe in Kamerun and the Fula Sunni Muslim states and tribes that were a part of the Sokoto Empire, particularly the Emirate of Adamawa in the northern half of the region. After these territories were annexed major resistance continued for years and several uprisings occurred.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamerun campaign</span> 1914–1916 British, French and Belgian invasion of the German colony of Kamerun

The Kamerun campaign took place in the German colony of Kamerun in the African theatre of the First World War when the British, French and Belgians invaded the German colony from August 1914 to March 1916. Most of the campaign took place in Kamerun but skirmishes also broke out in British Nigeria. By the Spring of 1916, following Allied victories, the majority of German troops and the civil administration fled to the neighbouring neutral colony of Spanish Guinea. The campaign ended in a defeat for Germany and the partition of its former colony between France and Britain.

The Kongo-Wara rebellion, also known as the War of the Hoe Handle and the Baya War, was a rural, anticolonial rebellion in the former colonies of French Equatorial Africa and French Cameroon which began as a result of recruitment of the native population in railway construction and rubber tapping. It was a large colonial uprising but also among the least well-known uprisings during the interwar period. Much of the conflict took place in what is now part of the Central African Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beti people</span> Central African ethnic group of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon

The Beti people are a Central African ethnic group primarily found in central Cameroon. They are also found in Equatorial Guinea and northern Gabon. They are closely related to the Bulu people, the Fang people and the Yaunde people, who are all sometimes grouped as Ekang.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Gbaya". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  2. ↑ Shillington, Kevin (2013). Encyclopedia of African History. Routledge. pp. 398–400. ISBN   978-1-135-45669-6.
  3. 1 2 Olson, James Stuart (1996). The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 193. ISBN   978-0-313-27918-8.
  4. ↑ Burnham, Philip; Christensen, Thomas (1983). "Karnu's Message and the 'War of the Hoe Handle': Interpreting a Central African resistance movement". Africa: Journal of the International African Institute. 53 (4). Cambridge University Press: 3–22. doi:10.2307/1159708. JSTOR   1159708. S2CID   145474688.
  5. ↑ Bateranzigo, Léonidas (1995). Les Gbaya et les Kaka de l'Est-Cameroun, des Origines à 1960. University of Yaoundé. p. 33.
  6. 1 2 Bateranzigo 1995, p. 97.
  7. ↑ Bateranzigo 1995, p. 93.
  8. ↑ Bateranzigo 1995, p. 34.
  9. ↑ Bateranzigo 1995, p. 122.
  10. ↑ Bateranzigo 1995, p. 127.
  11. ↑ Bateranzigo 1995, p. 128.
  12. ↑ Bateranzigo 1995, p. 130.
  13. ↑ Bateranzigo 1995, p. 131.
  14. ↑ Bateranzigo 1995, p. 139.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Bateranzigo 1995, p. 140.
  16. 1 2 Burnham, P. C. (January 1997). Gbaya . The Rosen Publishing Group. pp.  59–61. ISBN   978-0-8239-1995-6.
  17. ↑ Bateranzigo 1995, p. 96.
  18. ↑ Webster, Hutton (1942). Taboo: A Sociological Study. Stanford University. p. 126.
  19. ↑ Clozel, François-Joseph (1896). Les Bayas : notes ethnographiques et linguistiques. p. 9.
  20. ↑ Clozel 1896, p. 9.
  21. ↑ Bateranzigo 1995, p. 401.
  22. 1 2 3 Molefi Kete Asante; Ama Mazama (2009). Encyclopedia of African Religion. SAGE Publications. p. 116. ISBN   978-1-4129-3636-1.
  23. ↑ Rosander, Eva Evers (1997). Transformation Des Identités Féminines. Nordic Africa Institute. p. 206. ISBN   978-91-7106-403-5.
  24. ↑ Währisch-Oblau, Claudia; Wrogemann, Henning (9 January 2015). Witchcraft, Demons and Deliverance. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 144. ISBN   978-3-643-90657-1.
  25. ↑ Mudimbe, V. Y. (6 October 2016). Tales of Faith: Religion as Political Performance in Central Africa. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 76. ISBN   978-1-4742-8137-9.
  26. ↑ Jacqueline Cassandra Woodfork (2006). Culture and Customs of the Central African Republic. Greenwood Publishing. p. 157. ISBN   978-0-313-33203-6.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.